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Tempest Prognosticator
The tempest prognosticator, also known as the leech barometer, is a 19th-century invention by George Merryweather in which leeches are used in a barometer. The twelve leeches are kept in small bottles inside the device; when they become agitated by an approaching storm they attempt to climb out of the bottles and trigger a small hammer which strikes a bell. The likelihood of a storm is indicated by the number of times the bell is struck. Invention and development Dr. Merryweather, honorary curator of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society's Museum, detailed the sensitivity that medicinal leeches displayed in reaction to electrical conditions in the atmosphere. He was inspired by two lines from Edward Jenner's poem ''Signs of Rain'': "The leech disturbed is newly risen; Quite to the summit of his prison."The Weekly Dispatch. 22 March 1851.London: The Great Exhibition". Accessed 22 January 2007. Merryweather spent much of 1850 developing his ideas and came up with six ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merryweather
Merryweather may refer to: People * Alice Merryweather (born 1996), American alpine skier * Andrew Merryweather (born 1961), Australian rules footballer * George Merryweather (1794–1870), English inventor of the tempest prognosticator, a leech-based weather predicting gadget * James Merryweather (1929–2000), English cricketer * John Merryweather (1932–2019), Aruban landscape architect and politician * Julian Merryweather (born 1991), American baseball player * Merryweather (comics artist), webcomic author * Neil Merryweather (born 1945), Canadian singer, bass player and songwriter Others * Merryweather (band), a Canadian rock band from the 1960s * Merryweather helmet, a firefighter's helmet used by British Victorian era fire brigades * Merryweather, a Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, character in Disney's ''Sleeping Beauty'' * Merryweather & Sons, British builders of steam fire engines and steam tram engines * Irene Merryweather, fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert FitzRoy
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra del Fuego and the Southern Cone. FitzRoy was a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate daily weather predictions, which he called by a new name of his own invention: "forecasts". In 1854 he established what would later be called the Met Office, and created systems to get weather information to sailors and fishermen for their safety. He was an able surveyor and hydrographer. As Governor of New Zealand, serving from 1843 to 1845, he tried to protect the Māori from illegal land sales claimed by British settlers. Early life and career Robert FitzRoy was born at Ampton Hall, Ampton, Suffolk, England, into the upper echelons of the British aristocracy and a tradition of public service. Through his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, Robe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pasilalinic-sympathetic Compass
The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass, also referred to as the snail telegraph, was a contraption built to test the pseudo-scientific hypothesis that snails create a permanent telepathy, telepathic link when they mate. The device was developed by France, French occultist Jacques-Toussaint Benoît (de l'Hérault) with the supposed assistance of an American colleague monsieur Biat-ChrétienAccording to Dickens, no one ever saw Monsieur Biat, and it is undetermined whether he really existed. in the 1850s. The hypothesis Benoit claimed that when snails mate, a special type of fluid forms a permanent telepathic link between them. This fluid forms an invisible thread that keeps the snails in "sympathetic communication" by using animal magnetism similar to an electric current pulsating along it.Howard, Toby. 1995. Progress at snail's pace. Accessed 28 May 2007. They claimed that this method would work instantly, wirelessly, over any distance, and be more reliable than a telegraph. Thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frog Battery
A frog battery is an electrochemical battery consisting of a number of dead frogs (or sometimes live ones), which form the cells of the battery connected in a series arrangement. It is a kind of biobattery. It was used in early scientific investigations of electricity and academic demonstrations. The principle behind the battery is the '' injury potential'' created in a muscle when it is damaged, although this was not fully understood in the 18th and 19th centuries; the potential being caused incidentally due to the dissection of the frog's muscles. The frog battery is an example of a class of biobatteries which can be made from any number of animals. The general term for an example of this class is the muscular pile. The first well-known frog battery was created by Carlo Matteucci in 1845, but there had been others before him. Matteucci also created batteries out of other animals, and Giovanni Aldini created a battery from ox heads. Background In the early days of elect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of California cities by population, fourth most populous in California and List of United States cities by population, 17th most populous in the United States, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of , at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City, and the County statistics of the United States, fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income (at $160,749) and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include ''SF'', ''San Fran'', ''The '', ''Frisco'', and '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okehampton
Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based in the town (east and west). Their joint population at the same census was 7,500. Okehampton is 21 miles (33 km) west of Exeter, 26 miles (42 km) north of Plymouth and 24 miles (38 km) south of Barnstaple. History Okehampton was founded by the Saxons. The earliest written record of the settlement is from 980 AD as , meaning settlement by the Ockment, a river which runs through the town. It was recorded as a place for slaves to be freed at cross roads. Like many towns in the West Country, Okehampton grew on the medieval wool trade. Notable buildings in the town include the 15th century chapel of James, son of Zebedee, St. James and Okehampton Castle, which was established by the Normans, Norman High Sheriff of Devon, Sherif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barometer World
Barometer World is the world's only barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ... museum, and is located in the village of Merton, near Great Torrington, Devon, England. Barometer World makes, sells and restores barometers of a variety of types. It was established in 1979 by Philip Collins. History In 1987 Barometer World moved from The Old Smithy in Merton to its current location at Quicksilver Barn. An exhibition of barometers was opened by Peter Negretti in 1990 and replaced by a new one now on display, the current premises comprises a shop, workshop, and the exhibition. Visitors are advised to e-mail or phone before turning up. The museum's curator is Philip Collins. He started learning the craft of barometer repair in Bideford at the age of 19, and in 1979 es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dome Of Discovery
The Dome of Discovery was a temporary exhibition building designed by architect Ralph Tubbs for the Festival of Britain celebrations which took place on London's South Bank in 1951, alongside the River Thames. The consulting engineers were Freeman Fox & Partners, in particular Oleg Kerensky and Gilbert Roberts. Like the adjacent Skylon, the dome became an iconic structure for the public and helped popularise modern design and architectural style in a Britain still suffering through post-war austerity. As twin icons, the forms of the Skylon and Dome of Discovery were related to those of the Trylon and Perisphere of the 1939 New York World's Fair. Controversially, after the Festival closed, the dome was demolished and its materials sold as scrap. The site was cleared for reuse, and is now the location of the Jubilee Gardens, near the London Eye. The building The dome had a diameter of and stood tall, making it at the time the largest dome in the world. It had a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intaglio Printing
Intaglio ( ; ) is the family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print where the parts of the matrix that make the image stand ''above'' the main surface. Normally, copper or in recent times zinc sheets, called plates, are used as a surface or matrix, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint, often in combination. Collagraphs may also be printed as intaglio plates. After the decline of the main relief technique of woodcut around 1550, the intaglio techniques dominated both artistic printmaking as well as most types of illustration and popular prints until the mid 19th century. Process In intaglio printing, the lines to be printed are cut into a metal (e.g. copper) plate by means either of a cutting tool called a burin, held in the hand – in which case the process is called ''engraving''; or thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festival Of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: Labour cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the original plan to celebrate the centennial of the Great Exhibition of 1851. However, it was not to be another World Fair, for international themes were absent, as was the British Commonwealth. Instead the 1951 festival focused entirely on Britain and its achievements; it was funded chiefly by the government, with a budget of £12 million. The Labour government was losing support and so the implicit goal of the festival was to give the people a feeling of successful recovery from the war's devastation, as well as promoting British science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts. The Festival's centrepiece was in London on the South Bank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Storm Glass
The storm glass or chemical weather glass is an instrument proposed as a method for predicting weather. It consists of a special liquid placed inside a sealed transparent glass. The state of crystallization within the liquid was believed to be related to the weather. The inventor is unknown but the device became popular in the 1860s after being promoted by Royal Navy Admiral Robert FitzRoy who claimed that The compositions of the liquid in a storm glass varies but usually contains "camphor, nitrate of potassium and sal-ammoniac, dissolved by alcohol, with water and some air." These devices are now known to have little value in weather prediction but continue to be a curiosity. Description The liquid within the glass is a mixture of several ingredients, most commonly distilled water, ethanol, potassium nitrate, ammonium chloride, and camphor. This specific mixture was promoted by Admiral Robert FitzRoy although similar devices existed even two decades earlier with variants in Ita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
